


The Fang's Pale Flower

by PiousMage



Series: Fire Emblem Trans Week 2020 [4]
Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: Rekka no Ken | Fire Emblem: Blazing Sword
Genre: Everybody Lives, Gen, i just think it would be neat if maybe nino experienced less loss, trans!Nino, well a lot of people still die actually
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-19
Updated: 2020-07-19
Packaged: 2021-03-05 03:00:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,950
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25387180
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PiousMage/pseuds/PiousMage
Summary: Nino has already lost one family. What if she didn't have to lose another?
Series: Fire Emblem Trans Week 2020 [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1833706
Kudos: 11
Collections: Fire Emblem Trans Week 2020!





	The Fang's Pale Flower

**Author's Note:**

> CONTENT WARNINGS:
> 
> \- Linus, bless his heart, misgenders Nino during the conversation in the tavern. He also uses some crass language.

"It is done, my lord." The dark-haired woman folded her arms. "It was as you said: that family did indeed guard the secrets of the dragons. And those secrets belong to us, now."

The expression of the man standing opposite her did not change. "Excellent. Thank you, Sonia. You continue to meet my high expectations." He paused. "Did you leave a survivor?"

Sonia's smile faded. "Yes, I left a brat alive. There were two. Twin boys." The smile returned. "All it took was one hostage for them to tell me everything I needed to know."

"Did you bring the child back with you?"

A groan. "Yes. I am loath to ask what you wish for me to do with it."

"Watch your tongue, Sonia. My next task for you is your most important one yet." For the first time this meeting, he met her eyes. "That boy is descended from a long line of powerful Lycian mages. With care, he can grow into a fine tool to have at our disposal."

Resigned to her fate, Sonia took care not to speak with barbs in her voice. "You wish for me to raise this brat as my own."

"Certainly, this is not much to ask for from a capable, perfect being such as yourself?"

Sonia flipped her hair. It was always nice to be reminded how perfect she was. "I will make sure that brat becomes the finest mage you have ever seen, Lord Nergal."

"Excellent. Now that that's sorted, I have one more task for you. Find a man named Brendan Reed..."

* * *

The two boys were a far cry from being assassins. Lloyd, the older one, had only recently cracked double digits. His swordplay was still mostly play, but his skills were already showing the potential that would in time earn him the nickname "White Wolf." Linus, the younger one, often begged for a chance to hold Daddy's axe. His strength was not yet high enough to lift it off the ground, but one day that strength would be enough to earn him the nickname "Mad Dog." Their birth mother had passed some time ago, and in the years since their father, Brendan Reed, had done his best to give his two boys a fine upbringing. He also knew that one day, they would become part of his family business.

The family business was the Black Fang, the bane of Elibe's corrupt nobles and lawless bandits. Brendan Reed's group of assassins would be a powerful force for evil in the wrong hands, but Reed had always taken care to make sure that the Fang's justice was only dispensed against those the Fang considered "evildoers." Penniless paupers would come to the Fang when food stores were being hoarded by greedy landlords. Those who had lost family members to brigand attacks often used the Fang to seek out revenge. Brendan Reed prided himself on the fact that the Fang gave the voiceless a voice, gave the weaponless a weapon.

But between the Fang and his sons, Brendan Reed was getting exhausted. Lonely. When that beautiful woman appeared as if from nowhere, totally infatuated with him, it rekindled his dwindling lust for life. She even had a son of her own, and the boys had often spoke about wanting another brother. Best of all, his work as the Fang's leader didn't faze this woman one bit. In fact, she celebrated it. She understood that sometimes extreme measures had to be taken in order to ensure that justice was dispensed. She understood that all who were evil were the enemy of the Fang.

"This is Sonia," he'd said the first time she met the boys. "I know no one can ever replace your mother, but..."

Sonia had knelt down, waving a hand. She had laughed, which she had felt was a human thing to do. "Oh, I'm not trying to replace anyone. I just love your father _so_ much. I'm so excited to be part of this family!" Every time she spoke like that, she felt like an idiot. But people ate it up. And she liked having people in the palm of her hand.

They'd been wary at first, and maybe they'd always be wary. The minute she trotted out that darling little boy, though, their apprehensive faces turned to excitement.

Just as planned.

* * *

Smoke hung in the air of the tavern. It was a dive, to be sure, but all the more appropriate for the clandestine meetings of the Reed brothers. The only people who knew their faces well enough to match them to a name were either members of the Fang or targets they had already killed. An anonymous place like this was the best place to meet when they needed to get away from that woman's prying eyes. She had given them enough reason not to trust her just from the way she acted, from the way she treated them like pawns on a chessboard whenever it suited her.

They couldn't speak out against her. Their father truly loved her, for some reason, even if it was clear to everyone but him that Sonia did not share in that love. Privately, in moments like this, Lloyd and Linus wondered if the woman was even capable of love. She certainly didn't feel anything like it for her--

Ah. That was why they'd agreed to meet here, after all.

"Brother," Lloyd said. The ale in front of him remained untouched. "Nino has been a lot happier recently, yes?"

Linus nodded. His ale was near-empty. "I'm still wrapping my head around it all, to be honest. I'm still so used to thinking of her as my little brother."

The White Wolf elbowed the Mad Dog. "That's no reason not to break those old habits." He finally took a sip of his ale and grimaced. You get what you pay for. "Her life has been hard enough. We need to make sure we help make it easier whenever we can."

"Yeah, yeah," Linus replied dismissively. "I can't deny that she's like a different person now." There was a beat. "In a good way! She smiles way more often."

"I know I say this often, but it's so difficult to believe she's that woman's child." Lloyd stared into his bitter ale. "She's so bright, so radiant, and she loves her mother despite the fact that..."

After his brother trailed off, Linus saw fit to finish the sentence. "Despite the fact that she clearly doesn't give a shit about him-- _fuck_ , about her--she doesn't give a shit about her at all. I'm shocked she was on board with this whole thing in the first place."

"I don't think it really matters to Sonia what Nino does." Another sip, another grimace. "Can I confide something in you, Brother?"

"Yeah, go for it."

"Seeing the way Nino acts now...she's so much less reserved. If this is her true self, it's nothing like her mother at all."

Linus finished his ale and slammed the empty stein back on the table. "I think I'm picking up what you're putting down, bro."

Lloyd nodded. "Something's not right. You and me are going to find out what."

* * *

When Sonia tasked Lloyd Reed with killing Eliwood, a Lycian noble, it was the last straw. Not when the order came, though. It became the last straw when Lloyd did his homework before attacking. He spoke to peasants in the countryside of Pherae. Was Eliwood corrupt? No, as a matter of fact, and neither was his father. The people were well-fed, and the Marquess and his son were beloved and well-regarded. There was no reason to kill him. He was not evil, and he did not deserve the Fang's justice.

Lloyd met his brother in Bern. "Eliwood is not evil," he told him. "The true source of evil is Sonia."

"You're damn right about that," Linus replied, his axe over his shoulder. "But what do we do?"

"What we do best, Brother." Lloyd drew his sword and ran his hand across the blunt end of it. "We dispense the Fang's justice."

They found her right after she had dispatched her daughter on what was supposed to be her last mission: to murder Prince Zephiel, heir to Bern's throne. Jaffar, the Angel of Death that neither Lloyd nor Linus trusted, had accompanied her.

There was no time for words. She seemed surprised to see them, as if she hadn't been expecting to see them again. Before she could do anything, Lloyd had run his sword through her chest. It didn't feel right. She didn't bleed. He didn't feel his sword pierce anything but her skin, in one way and out the other. What _was_ she?

They didn't really need to know. Linus took her head off before she could explain anything. In an instant, she was nothing but dust. It was unnatural, and even though the brothers Reed had seen their fair share of disconcerting sights, they still had to take a step back in awe of what had just transpired in front of them. If anything, they had proved she wasn't human.

Most importantly, they had not left a body. Their father didn't need to know the full truth of the matter, only that Sonia had mysteriously vanished. It disappointed him, to be sure, but it was a far better outcome than dying by her hand. When it came to Nino, however...

* * *

_"Listen to him. All he wants is his parents’ love. To be accepted. That’s all. He’s just like me. No matter how I try, Mother always looks at me as if I were nothing. Her eyes are so filled with disappointment. She’s never held me… not even once…"_

* * *

Nino never carried out her final assignment. In the prince, she saw herself. Jaffar never carried out his final assignment, either. Tasked with killing Nino once she had completed her own assignment (or killing Nino and the prince if she had failed her assignment), he saw a light in Nino that he could not extinguish. The Fang's Blue Crow, Ursula, had been sent to ensure that neither the prince nor Nino still drew breath. Instead, she found the prince alive, Nino alive, and Jaffar having betrayed the Fang.

Providence had ensured that the Lycian noble whom Lloyd had spared, Eliwood, would be at the Bern manse that night. He and his close friends and devoted soldiers were working to stop Nergal's dark machinations, and they were there to save the prince, save Nino, and save Jaffar. Nino did not yet know that the mother she so desperately wanted to please had turned to dust, killed by her step-brothers.

She would never know. When the brothers Reed united with Eliwood's army to purge the Fang of Nergal's influence, they gave Nino the same story they had told Brendan Reed. Sonia had vanished without a trace. She had abandoned her daughter.

Nino didn't know what to feel. Part of her knew, always knew, that her mother had never loved her. Part of her even suspected that Sonia was never even her true mother. Her step-brothers agreed on this, but they couldn't say where Nino's real family was. It didn't matter. Nino still had a family. And as she stared Nergal down, after learning that he had robbed her of her true family, she stood with her found family behind her and used the magic that Sonia had drilled into her to erase him from history.

For her heroism and bravery, Nino's step-father named her to Ursula's vacated position in the Four Fangs. Her two brothers and the person closest to her made up the other three Fangs. The fourth, now, was Nino, the Pale Flower.


End file.
